Miserable’s Shoegazey “Violet” Will Destroy Your Heart

It’s a boundless track about “reminiscing on how beautiful things were and how they’ve faded from your life” from her upcoming LP Uncontrollable.

The Bay Area's Kristina Esfandiari (of King Woman), who makes dark folk as Miserable, is following up a series of EPs under that moniker with the debut full length Uncontrollable. The new LP is, like the name of Esfandiari's project, quite sad. But not the kind of sad that gets you all humdrum glum; these nine songs are a cathartic release of heartache and frustration born from insecurity and loss.

Premiering today on The FADER is "Violet," a particularly poignant, shoegazey track that gets deep under the skin—not only with Esfandiari's boundless voice, but with the slow beating drums, steady, ominous melody, and the rise of tension in the form of fuzz and reverb. If you've ever felt the pain of becoming estranged from a close friend, "Violet" will hit hard.

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"I wrote 'Violet' with my close friend Evan James (Far Away Places, Grey Zine)," Esfandiari wrote in an email to The FADER. "'Violet' is about being in the same friend group as someone you've had an intense falling out with and how shitty it feels when your friends constantly bring them up. It's about reminiscing on how beautiful things were and how they've faded from your life. How vindictive people can be once you bruise their ego or hurt their heart. How quickly people turn on each other. Beneath all of the pain is longing for a mended friendship."